New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-08
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE HARRIS COLLECTION.


THE ANTHONY MEMORIAL. Catalogue ,,. OF tne
Harris cosstionoi A%er Noes By JOHN sIocK
s ss, Ito pp XIII, 800 Providence: fuosheo
BY the Compiler
Tho remarkable collection of American poetry
of which we have here catalogue was oesun o'0'
CIV wears ago BY the Hon. Albert u. Giecnc
lauthcr of the famous ballad "Old Grimes Is
Dead ~, continued after Mr.. Grsenes death by
AR G.. Fiske Harris; bought Of Mr.. Harriss estate
Inv hrs cousin the late Senator Anthony
and. with further additions bcqueathed Dy
Senator Anthony to Brown University Win
q request that it should he kept 'osetner'
and called 1.-The Harris Collection II Is SAID 10
embrace between four and five thousand 'i,'e'
Dr. Stockbrdqe does not give the exact n"piue,
In 1874 Mir. Harris printed an INDEX u ~,
poetical accumulationS "Your work mas "i'".'u
mev wrote Mr. Bryant, III acknowledgment y,
copy OF the Index. by showing me VIM. " ".o
tudes of persons on our side Of the Atlantic nave
,v,,.o1 ,h,,r tim, in writing verses IN our
Language Some such feeling OF amazement anu
regret must be the first sensation OF every lover OF
literature in surveying this portentous ca'aoe"c'
Tie list of does not pretend 10 DO
None of the successive owners OF tne coiiec,ioi
tried to make il complete in any department..
STANDARD authors whose works are easily procured
are often represented only by few or their DOCKS
taken as at random, while the interest or the DOCK
hunter has been absorbed in the search after nearly
inaccessible rubbish which is scarce because IL Is
intrinsicaly worthless Fortunatey for antigua
ries and students of the dark byways and crooked
lanes Of literature the zest of the chase is often
worth more to the true collector than the quarry IT.
self So by tho side of Longfelow, Holmes, Bryant.
Poe and others who are destined to long and
honOred lives in every library we get mighty rows
of poets who have lost their vogue, and NUMBER
verse writers who never had any; ana In these
relics of the obscure the historian. now OF hereafter
NAV find invaluable illustrations OF our culture our
manners, our thought our public a1fairs wh'ch
better poetry would never reveal This consldera-
ton may reconcile to the spectacle OF wasted IN
dustry which startled Mr.. Bryant. The Anthony
Memorial represents n terrible sum of disappOlnt-
ment, loss, and folly-the tragic side of American
literature; but the future gets some profit out OF
the suferngs of the past The Harris collection is
more remarkable for its magnitude and It's wlde
range than for the possession ofthose costly rartes
which stir the envy of bibiOpbiles. Thousands OF
the wholly and hOpelessly bad crowd its shelves
with the melancholy trophies of failure; and II Is
we'll that they find an asylum here which Is
denied them everywhere else On the other hand,
treasures OF price seem to have have been gathered
at random We find the first edition of Anne
Bradstreet. and some valuable Cotton Matheis;
but the Bay Psalm Book IS represented by the
modern reprint Sandyss translation OF OVID,
most of which was written in Virginia, ana winch
Professor Tyler we'll calls the first uttcrance OF the
conscious literary spirit artculated in America, Is
missing: ,ld it would be easy to make list OF
other Sc, ententh century publications necessary
for historical survey of our literature in which
the collection lsdefclent. Coming down to later
times the most obvious weakness of the library is
in first editions early editions and best editions OF
I'd cd q BRYANT
Emerson are notably lacking, and there is much
wanting of the early publications of LonCfellOw.
Lowell, Dana, and Others The meagreness OF the
array of p e's books is almost absurd. Joel Bar
lows famous illustrated edition of his "Coumblad"
was IN its day the finest specimen of book manufac-
urc ever issued flom the American press ; the
collection does not contain this, but has three
inferior and later editions.
The defects of the catalogue as photographed
record are obvious DR.. Stockbridge has NOT been
careful enough to transcribe the titles OF the
books; he has sometimes abridged them so much
that his entries become erroneous even uninteli
clbe. For example we find the entry, Preston.
uI c. Poem. HOMEOPATHIC" Iscl. This GER
tainly cannot be the title of the publication
IL may be description Of it. Again. we read
"Sandys G.) A ParaphTase. etc." This is neither
title nor description. Sandys published three
"Paraphrases Of parts of the Bible, and 1t is only
by nothing fne GATE ana referring 10 soIlc pipiio
graphical authority that we can discover which OF
the three this is A Pin Beta Kappa poem by
Joseph Bartlett on PhysognOmy" is entered
Bartlett, a. A Poem, etc. The names of au-
thOrs usually abridged, initials being given
instead of the full Christian Names so that we are
frequently unable to determine whether the writer
is woman Pseudonym poems are
entered sometimes under the leading word of the
title. sometimes under the pseudOnym, never. we
hob, <anrn
erences The famous Croaker poems OF Drake and
HaIleck are entered only under Poems not
under Drake, OF Haeck or Croaker. volume
of Spanish poetry. La Araucana." by Don Aonzo
de Ercilla Zuniga, appears not under the name
of the author but under the definite article.
'La"! The punctuation Of this title Is extremely
droI Under the title Crown" we have long
Misunderstanding account of an English dramatist
Of the Restoration period, born in Nova Scotia,
whose works were q special object Of search with
Mr. Harris. as they had previously been with the
late William L. Burton. collection of the or,gi-
nal editions was made by Mr. Burton and bound i'll
four volumes. Strange to say. Or. Stockbridges
confused remarks leave us uncertain whether these
four volumes are included In the present library
or not The following entry Is unintelligIble:
Benson tE.) Sketch OF Gaspara Stampa. with
selections from her Sonnets. Translated by
George Fleming" What are the respective shares
Of Benson and Fleming in this book, and what has
Fleming translated The mystery Is solved By
another entry of the same book. and same edition.
under /" Stampa, but with considerable differences
in the wording and punctuation of the title. From
this 1T appears that Benson wrote the Memoir and
Fleming translated the Sonnets. DR.. Stockbrdge
supplies two biographical notes on Gaspara Stampa.
According to one she born 1853 and ac-
cording to the other she committed suicide in 1854
If this is so, she must have begun to write sonnets
quite early. The first and third editions of |" he
Petapsco and other Poems" are recorded under
Soran Co." The second edition Of the same book
Is attributed a few pages further on to c.
Swan. Miss Harriet w. Preston tares ILL., Each
Of the three titles entered under her name